Arnold Richards 01Jun2012 Yiddish Book Center
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- Topics
- Jewish Identity, Yiddish language, Yiddish revival and activism, Coming back to Yiddish, Literature, Newspapers, Career and Professional Life, Jewish professions, Scholarship, Academia, Holocaust, Israel, United States, Yiddish Book Center, Film, Advice, Favorite Yiddish word, Yiddish words, Family history, stories about ancestors, Childhood, Education, Eastern Europe, Transmission, Jewish community, Arnold Richards, YIVO, Society for the Advancement of Judaism, Yiddish Book Center, National Yiddish Book Center, Wexler Oral History Project, nybc, ybc, Yiddish, Jewish culture,
- Language
- English, Yiddish
Arnold Richards was interviewed by Sara Israel on June 1, 2012 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.
To learn more about the Wexler Oral History Project, visit: http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell-your-story
To cite this interview: Arnold Richards Oral History Interview, interviewed by Sara Israel, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Karmazin Recording Studio, Yiddish Book Center, June 1, 2012. Video recording, http://archive.org/details/ArnoldRichards01jun2012YiddishBookCenter ( [date accessed] )
To learn more about the Wexler Oral History Project, visit: http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell-your-story
To cite this interview: Arnold Richards Oral History Interview, interviewed by Sara Israel, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Karmazin Recording Studio, Yiddish Book Center, June 1, 2012. Video recording, http://archive.org/details/ArnoldRichards01jun2012YiddishBookCenter ( [date accessed] )
- Abstract
- Arnold Richards, psychoanalyst and Yiddish cultural organizer, was interviewed by Sara Israel on June 1, 2012 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Arnold starts the interview by describing his family and talks about his "mixed" background. His father, a Yiddish speaker and Bolshevik, was from Podolia and his family was oriented toward Russia and Russian. Conversely, his mother came from an Orthodox family from a small shtetl (village) near Skała in Poland. His maternal grandfather taught the children in the shtetl. Arnold shares a particular story about his relative, Isaac Metzker, Yiddish novelist and short story writer born in Poland in 1901, who published "A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward" in English translation in 1971. He notes that the picture on the cover of the 1971 edition is his mother as a young girl. Describing his neighborhood as the place where "the Italian kids beat up the Jewish kids," Arnold then talks about living in Boro Park, Brooklyn. His grandmother, a native Yiddish speaker, lived with him until she died. Arnold explains that he learned Yiddish from her and grew up speaking both English and Yiddish. He shares a particular memory of reading a headline from "The Jewish Daily Forward" announcing the death of Freud when he was a child. Arnold then discusses his education, Yiddish in his home, and his family's knowledge of the Holocaust. He attended a shule (secular Yiddish school) run by the Workers Circle (Arbeter Ring) from 1941-1946 and describes the shule as the only place where he spoke Yiddish with other young people. He recalls how at home his family had books by Sholem Aleichem, I. L. Peretz, and other Yiddish authors, as well as "The Jewish Daily Forward." Arnold reflects on how the Holocaust was a significant part of his childhood experience because his family had relatives in Europe; his parents read the Yiddish newspapers and were aware of what was going on. Arnold discusses religiosity in his family and explains that his father was an atheist who went to the movies on Yom Kippur while his mother was Orthodox and kept kosher. He further reflects on what he calls his Jewish-Yiddish identity and describes being comfortable with being an American and a Jew. He then reflects on his journey back to Yiddish upon returning to New York City after studying and later joining the Society for Advancement of Judaism (SAJ). Arnold recalls getting Ida Kaminska, the famed Polish-Jewish actress, to perform and how he raised money for her at the SAJ. Discussing his involvement in the Yiddish scene in New York, Arnold reflects on being on the board of YIVO and the founding of the Center for Jewish History on West 16th Street where YIVO is currently housed. He views his interests in Jewish culture and psychiatry as intersecting. Arnold is fascinated by the life of Freud and his relationship to his Jewish identity. Towards the end of the interview, Arnold reflects on today's generation of young Jews. Arnold sees a disconnect between his generation and today's generation in terms of Yiddish as a spoken language. However, he speaks fondly about younger Jews returning to their heritage and hopes that they will immerse themselves in the language so that it won't disappear.
- Addeddate
- 2013-06-26 18:40:36
- Citation
- Arnold Richards Oral History Interview, interviewed by Sara Israel, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Karmazin Recording Studio, Yiddish Book Center, June 1, 2012. Video recording, http://archive.org/details/ArnoldRichards01jun2012YiddishBookCenter ( [date accessed] )
- Color
- color
- Controlled-themes
- Jewish Identity | Yiddish language | Yiddish revival and activism | Coming back to Yiddish | Literature | Newspapers | Career and professional life | Jewish professions | Academia | Holocaust | Israel | United States | Yiddish Book Center | Film | Advice | Favorite Yiddish word | Yiddish words | Family histories | Childhood | Education | Eastern Europe | Cultural transmission
- Excerpts
- 1433, 1434, 1435, 1436, 1437, 1438, 1439
- Geographic-themes
- Israel | United States | Eastern Europe
- Ia_orig__runtime
- 76 minutes 55 seconds
- Identifier
- ArnoldRichards01jun2012YiddishBookCenter
- Interview-date
- 6/1/2012
- Interview-location
- Karmazin Recording Studio
- Narrator-birth-place
- Brooklyn, New York
- Narrator-birth-year
- 1934
- Narrator-first-name
- Arnold
- Narrator-last-name
- Richards
- Organization-themes
- YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | Society for the Advancement of Judaism
- People-themes
- Arnold Richards
- Run time
- 1:16:55
- Sound
- sound
- Uncontrolled-themes
- Arnold Richards | YIVO | Society for the Advancement of Judaism |
- Uncontrolled-themes2
- Arnold Richards | YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | Society for the Advancement of Judaism
- Wohp-interview-id
- 293
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